The cock she felt protruding from Tucker’s sheath and digging into her belly pushed her over the edge.
No fucking way did he think in his tiny little brain she’d let him take her now.
She whimpered and laid her head to the side, showing her throat and offering him her submission. He was just stupid enough to fall for her ploy. Tucker’s tongue hung out, a drop of saliva falling on the fur of her neck. He reeked of his need to fuck. Had she been in human form, Paige would have puked. Tucker lowered his hips, stabbing her belly with his erection and grinding it into her, a mewling grunt coming from his throat.
She would rip his dick off before she let him put it inside her. He was about to have a very rude awakening.
He nuzzled her throat, licking at her fur and urging her with his nose and soft growls to turn over onto her belly so he could mount her. She whimpered again. Let him think she wanted what he did, that he’d won. If the dickhead couldn’t smell her mate’s scent all over her, then that was his fault. The three buffoons howled around them. It sounded like laughter, taunting their friend to take her while they watched.
She realized that was exactly what Tucker wanted.
He wanted his friends to be there as witnesses to say he’d fucked her.
She would scratch all their eyeballs out. After she ripped their testicles from their dicks and fed them to them with a long, sharp, red-hot poker.
Tucker’s nose dug into her shoulder, urging her over again. Paige started to roll, taking it easy, not wanting to warn him. He took a step back to give her room to stand and she sprang, jerking out from underneath him with a surprising force and chomping down on his neck. He stood in shock, her teeth buried in his flesh with enough force to break the fragile bones, yet she held back. If he even so much as twitched a muscle, she’d do it.
The mocking howls around her stopped abruptly.
“What the fuck is going on?” Derek, breathless and sweaty based on what she could smell of him, stumbled into the clearing and directly into the circle of Tucker’s pals.
Damn it.
“Paige?”
Irritated growls sounded. Paige’s heart thudded for her mate, who’d just put himself in danger by following her. She stupidly hadn’t figured on him doing such a thing. Her teeth slipped on Tucker’s throat in her distraction. If she let go, the asshole was likely to attack Derek.
She clamped down in warning and shook her head. Let him be the one to call his cronies off.
“Don’t move, Paige.” Derek’s softly issued command shot straight through her. What was he doing? She glanced his way and focused on the gun in his hand through her much-enhanced wolf’s eyesight.
Where the hell had he gotten that? She’d just made love to him, touched him all over. He had not been in possession of a gun, and based on how quickly he followed her, he hadn’t had time to make it back to his car to grab it.
“I’ve got him, Paige. I know he can understand me too. Is this Tucker in the fur?”
She whined in acknowledgement. A movement to her left caught her attention. One of Tucker’s friends was trying to sneak around behind Derek. Paige let out a low growl and repositioned her body, dragging Tucker with her.
“I see him, Paige. Let go and come to me.”
Let go? Let go? Didn’t he realize how quickly a wolf could attack? If she let go and shifted, Tucker would have him taken down and his throat torn out before she was in her skin again.
Unless Derek got off a shot first. The round might not kill the ignorant ass, but it would sting like hell and slow him down. Then he’d have to be quick and accurate if he wanted to get all of them, and she doubted it was possible for him to take on the four at once, gun or not. Derek might be a part of Caelan’s team, but because he didn’t have a furry side, she didn’t have much faith in the outcome if he had to fight all of them.
“Paige,” Derek barked, his hand steady as a rock where it aimed at Tucker’s body. “Don’t make me come over there to get you. I may be the human mate in this relationship, but that doesn’t make me any less capable of putting these guys down.”
Paige flicked her brows upward. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d been chastised in her wolf form. Kind of made her feel like a child. Then again, he’d just told everyone within shouting distance he was her mate. Tucker for damn sure had heard him. He snarled and ripped himself out of her grip. He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed.
Paige knew exactly what he’d smell—sex. And her mark on Derek’s skin. Now maybe the hardheaded, stubborn asshole who should have known a long time ago she was mated already, would back off and get a clue. She already had a mate. One who had gone to bat for her, stood up for her instead of treating her like yesterday’s garbage and trying to force her into something she didn’t want.
Although, with his tone of voice, Paige wasn’t so sure Derek wouldn’t try forcing something on her. He sounded ready to give her a nice, long spanking.
Her heart skipped a beat when she realized what she’d done. She’d shot off half-cocked, shifted in front of a human—didn’t matter that the human was Derek, who knew all about them—and run off, leaving him to worry about her.
A serious case of wanting to do damage to Tucker had taken over her brain, and she’d shifted in front of a human. Anyone other than Derek and she’d be in massive trouble with Caelan. Damn Tucker again. The stupid man made her forget everything she’d ever been taught, and now, when she should be ensconced in bed with her mate, she was standing in the midst of four pissed-off wolves and one pissed-off man holding a gun on them. She supposed she had some sucking up to do. The sucking up part was something she would take great pleasure in, as a matter of fact. But first…
She tucked her head to her chest, took a deep breath and shifted, feeling the familiar ache in bones and muscles as her wolf retreated and her human emerged. Beside her, Tucker huffed and backed up, moving closer to the circle of his buddies. With one last, ugly growl, clearly stating he wasn’t done with her, they loped off into the line of trees and disappeared.
Paige sighed and watched them until they were out of sight. A switch in the warm breeze brought a chill to her sweat-slicked skin.
“First rule.”
“Huh?” Paige spun around and her ankle twisted painfully in the hole she hadn’t realized she was standing in. Derek grabbed her arm to keep her from falling and pulled her to his chest. One hand tucked her head beneath his chin, the other soothed up and down her back. Her bare, naked back.
Suddenly self-conscious, she shivered and wrapped her arms across her chest, covering her puckered nipples. Stupid, really, since a) it was dark and Derek didn’t have the eyesight she did; b) the way she was smashed up against him, he couldn’t see her even if it were the full light of day; and c) he’d already seen all of her. And licked and bit and tasted just about every inch of her. Several times.
He chuckled above her head. Great. He’d been thinking the same things.
Derek lifted her face with a finger under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “Don’t you ever run off on me again—”
“Excuse me?” No way in hell would he dictate to her.
“And,” he stressed, ignoring her interruption, “jump into a dangerous situation. What if I hadn’t been here? What if he’d fucked you? Raped you, to clarify things, because that’s what it would have been.”
Oh good, he’d seen what Tucker was trying to do. “I had it under control,” she muttered.
“Playing the submissive, I know. But sweetheart, while that may have worked for a few minutes, you wouldn’t have been able to fight him off for long.”
She started to protest, but he cut her off with an “ah-ah” and a finger across her lips.
“Tucker may be stupid—hell, there is no maybe, he is definitely stupid—but he’s also twice your size and had three friends with him. Even if you’d
caught him by surprise, which you did—” he kissed her forehead with a reverence that told her he respected what she’d tried to do even if he didn’t like it, “—he still had the advantage.”
Derek cupped her face in his palms and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “They would have taken you down and he would have raped you. I don’t care what you call it when you’re in wolf form, it would have been rape, and it would kill me to see you hurting. So there will be no more running off without me to confront the dickhead bothering you.” He tapped her nose. “He’s part of the reason I’m around, to make sure he doesn’t mess with you, but I can’t do my job if you run off and leave me chasing your tail. Literally. Understand?”
How could she not? A tear trickled from the flood of them in her eyelids. Lord, she loved him. How long had she known him? Less than a week? It was crazy.
“I said, do you understand?” he repeated.
She nodded vigorously. “Yes.” Everything he’d said was true, and as her mate, he had every right to feel the way he did. She couldn’t fault him for wanting to protect her even if what she’d done, she’d done to protect him.
“Perfect.” He clapped his hands, then rubbed them together while she stood in front of him still naked, her nipples hard as little rocks and poking her palms where she continued shielding them. He stared at her chest, his pupils dilating impossibly more in the darkness. His words were whisper-soft when he spoke again. “Let me see them.”
Paige dropped her hands and lifted her chin. If he wanted to see her, she wouldn’t deny him. Couldn’t deny him. He reached out with long fingers and traced the raspberry tips. His tongue flicked out to lick along his lower lip.
“We need to go. Now,” he rasped. “Here.” He stripped off the shirt he must have picked up after she’d shifted and thrown on while running after her. He stuffed her arms into the torn sleeves and buttoned it down the front. “No need for any other creatures of the night to see you.”
“He’s long gone by now. Had his tail tucked between his legs too.”
“Yeah, well, a gun’ll get the same reaction from most people.”
She searched his body thoughtfully. His abs quivered with her perusal and she couldn’t wait to do some more exploring of his exquisite body. “Where did that gun come from anyway, and where the hell did it go?” She hadn’t seen him put it away.
He turned around and she saw it tucked in the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back. She cocked her head.
“It wasn’t there before. Not when I yanked your pants open. I think I would have noticed it falling to the ground, so you pulled it out of your—”
“Ankle holster, you dirty-minded minx.” He laughed and draped his arm around her shoulders, marching her back the way they’d come. “What do you need from your house?”
“You mean what do you need from your house?”
“I actually get to go to your house tonight? And you better understand right now, I’m not leaving.”
Paige glanced up and laughed out loud. “It’s late.”
“So?”
“So tomorrow’s a long day and everything I need is at my house. If we went to yours, I’d just have to come back to mine, because undoubtedly I’d leave something behind. Whereas you, being a man, only have to remember to bring the tux and the shoes, and anything else can be bought at a gas station practically.”
“Do you view all men this way, or just me?”
She stopped. “Not you. I mean, it’s just, I—”
“Hey.” He dropped his hands on her shoulders. “We’ll go wherever you’re most comfortable. I won’t leave you alone, though, so if that’s what you were wanting, tough shit.”
“I don’t ever want to be alone.” It was the God’s honest truth. She couldn’t imagine being separated from him. This afternoon had been too long—she’d never make it through the night. Paige brushed her hand over the warm skin of his chest and sifted her fingers through the soft, curly hair. “It’s not that I’ll be more comfortable at my house, but what I’m saying is true. It’s easier to be around my stuff and you bring yours—”
He covered her mouth with one of his big hands. “Breathe,” he said, giving her a chance to do so before turning her around and walking again with his hand at the small of her back. “We need to get out of the woods.”
Paige couldn’t help it. “Are you scared of the dark? Ouch,” she yelped after stepping on something sharp. She hopped on one foot and held the other by the toes, biting her lip to keep from yelling out again. “Son of a mother…”
“Stop bouncing,” he chided.
Not “are you all right?” but “stop bouncing”. Nice. She could feel the love. “I stepped on something.” Her voice sounded so damn whiny it made her cringe.
“Now you know what happens when you shift and go running off into the night without thinking.” Derek scooped her up with one hand under her knees and the other around her back.
“I did it to protect you.” She grumbled some more words she didn’t really want him to hear and laid her head on his shoulder. He could carry her anytime he wanted, the big oaf.
His steps faltered and he looked down at her incredulously. “You did it because Tucker pissed you off one too many times. Don’t do it again,” he gritted out and continued walking.
“Don’t do it again,” she parroted. His arms tightened around her, making her squeak.
“You never answered me,” she said with a sigh, leaning into him again, smelling his skin and giving in to the temptation to taste him. Salty from the sweat still drying on him after their run and tree sex, some manly soap she couldn’t identify, probably Axe or Zest or Do Your Best—something without a girly flavor to it like her coconut vanilla concoction—and there was man. All man. Musky and earthen and so yummy she could eat him up.
“Are you licking me?” He sounded so incensed, she did it again. A long, slow swipe with the flat of her tongue so there was no way he could miss it. He paused again and hefted her up in his arms like she’d been slipping from his grasp. Good. She liked that she could take him off guard.
“Are you avoiding the question?”
“How the hell far did you run, little wolf?” He grunted and readjusted her again.
Aw, he’d given her another nickname already. “Probably about a mile. You can put me down, I’m not an invalid. I just stepped on something.”
“No.”
His fingers caressed her bare hip, bringing the reality of their closeness to the forefront of her mind. He was bare chested and she had nothing on except his shirt. Her nipples tightened, rubbing excruciatingly against the cotton fabric, and her pussy clenched. Dry leaves crunched beneath his feet as he hiked through the woods. Paige’s ears perked and she listened for other sounds in the night. The hoot of an owl pretty far off in the distance, the chatter of late-night birds, the wind in the trees—nothing out of the ordinary.
Derek could lay her down right here and she wouldn’t mind a bit. Nothing would disturb them. Tucker was long gone—off to lick his wounded pride, no doubt—but he’d be back. Tomorrow or the next day or the next. She wasn’t stupid. Sooner or later the thick meathead would show up, if for nothing else than to salvage said pride. She’d made him look like the idiot he was in front of his friends, and she knew he’d feel the need to get her back. Or Derek.
Good God, the man could go after Derek for the slight. Derek was the one who’d pulled the gun on him.
“Stop wiggling.” He pinched her ass.
“Hey!”
“I told you to stop.”
Her train of thought moved on from their demise to retaliation. His nipple caught her eye. Standing at attention, the hard little nub would be perfect retaliation. Her teeth would sink around it and bite with just the right amount of pressure to make him…cuss. She grinned. The idea of biting him there was so enticing.
“Don’t. Even. Think. About it.”
The air left her lungs and raspberried through her lips. How had he known? “So how come you’re afraid of the dark?”
“I am not afraid of the dark, woman.”
“Then how come you’re so eager to get out of the woods?” Hell, she’d spent the better part of three years in them, running off the frustration of losing her parents and any other stresses that cropped up. She knew every nook and cranny that led to her home, and there was nothing to be scared of, because she knew all of the big, bad wolves. Okay, Tucker she was scared of. But she really hadn’t been until recently.
“Maybe I’m eager to get us into bed.”
Hmm. She hadn’t thought of it that way. Suddenly the dark woods weren’t very inviting to her either. She swallowed and squeezed her thighs together when the tingling in her clit and clenching in her womb seized her with a vengeance.
“I’m scared, Derek. Take me home.”
He snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark now, sweetheart.”
“I’ll be afraid of anything if it gets me into bed with you.”
“You should be afraid, little wolf. Very afraid.”
“Why’s that?” She twisted in his arms and looked up at him. There was a gleam in his eyes only a creature like her could see, and it ratcheted the anticipation factor up about fifty notches.
“Because I’m going to hammer your ass for the fool thing you did with Tucker back there.”
The word “hammer” made her heart hammer. Did he mean hammer as in spanking her, or did he mean hammer as in pound his cock into her so hard she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began? And did he mean literally pounding her ass, or was he using that particular word as a euphemism? Either sounded more exciting than anything that had ever happened to her.
She was discovering all kinds of places to fuck. A swing, a tree… Until last night, Paige had never done anything more exotic than the bedroom floor. They’d gotten close in his hallway, and on the couch, and there’d been the table, but even the swing didn’t rate the same as the tree. Hell, she’d never even gone as far as sharing a shower with a man before Derek. As for getting off, more times than not her partner came before she did, if she did at all.
Ultimatum: Graham Pack Mates, Book 3 Page 17